I. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to communication techniques between chips or between dies within a package.
II. Background
Computing devices have become common in modern society. The prevalence of computing devices may be attributed to the many functions that are enabled within such computing devices. Increasingly complex integrated circuits have been designed and manufactured to provide increasingly greater functionality. Concurrent with the increases in complexity of the integrated circuits, there has been pressure to decrease the area consumed by the integrated circuits.
In many instances, the computing devices include a motherboard with several integrated circuits communicatively coupled to one another through conductive elements referred to as buses. Signals are passed from one integrated circuit to a second integrated circuit over such buses. As the complexity of the integrated circuits increases, the number of conductive elements required to convey signals between the integrated circuits typically increases. Likewise, as the amount of data increases, the frequencies at which the data is transmitted increase. As the number of conductive elements increases and the frequencies also increase, the opportunities for signals to interfere with one another increase. This interference is commonly referred to as electromagnetic interference (EMI) or crosstalk. If the EMI is too severe, undesirable errors may be introduced into the signal stream. While of concern for communication between two integrated circuits, EMI concerns also exist for communication that takes place between two dies within a single integrated circuit package.
Historically, each conductive element was treated as being functionally independent of other conductive elements even when the conductive elements were proximate one another, such that crosstalk could occur. Because activity on one conductive element frequently impacts other conductive elements, designers appreciate the ability to model the conductive elements more effectively so as to create more efficient communication schemes for communication between integrated circuits or between dies of a single integrated circuit package.